{"id":20800,"date":"2012-06-05T14:07:34","date_gmt":"2012-06-05T19:07:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=20800"},"modified":"2012-06-05T14:07:34","modified_gmt":"2012-06-05T19:07:34","slug":"is-creationism-satanic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2012\/06\/is-creationism-satanic\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Creationism Satanic?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steven Peck, in his moving and mischievous little poem “My Turn on Earth<\/a>,” more than idly suggests that Creationism is Satanic. Only evolution, in all its messy contingency, is compatible with the gospel and the truth of agency. I laughed out loud and clapped my hands when I read it.<\/p>\n

In this short excerpt from the poem, God is doing some premortal counciling with his children about the plan and, along the way, he entertains the “star bringer’s” alternative. The star bringing suggests not just an alternate plan of salvation, but an alternate plan of creation as well:<\/p>\n

Then star bringer held up his hand
\nAnd God nodded
\nMother bid him rise<\/em><\/p>\n

Stand still sweet parents swift and bright
\nHolding back darkness, wielding light<\/p>\n

For I have found the Apollonian way,
\nNo need for messes, wet with clay<\/p>\n

No blood, no semen, or menstrual mess
\nNo offal, sickness, age, distress<\/p>\n

Make it craftily designed and certain,
\nForget this grassy, slimish, verdan\u2019<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how . . .<\/em><\/p>\n

(And the children listened as he spoke)<\/p>\n

Tick tock tick tock
\nTurn the steel precision gear
\nNow wind up the iron clock<\/p>\n

Metal to metal, key to lock
\nTorsion, tension, forces shear
\nTick tock tick tock<\/p>\n

I will teach you how to walk
\nSet courses given, never veer
\nNow wind up the iron clock<\/p>\n

All is determined, never ad-hoc
\nAll to metronome adhere
\nTick tock tick tock<\/p>\n

Set with pulley, tackle, block
\nLet all in lockstep-click appear
\nNow wind up the iron clock<\/p>\n

Toward exact prediction flock!
\nAnd every outcome engineer!
\nTick tock tick tock!
\nNow wind up the iron clock!<\/p>\n

A lone figure walks in the distance, His head bowed,
\nAs the machinist unfolds blueprints
\nExact and precise and shows his devisings.<\/em><\/p>\n

The figure knells and wonders, Is a less cruel way possible?
\nCan this cup be replaced?
\nCan complexity emerge from other than freedom,
\nvariation, inheritance, selection?
\nIs the machinist right?
\nIs there another way?
\nThe contriver in the distance can be seen
\nwaving his hands and building a scale model
\nof a universe engineered to be set, certain,
\nno slop, all is measured and precise,
\nfixed, so that no surprises enter in.
\nWhere all is arranged from the beginning.
\nAnd once in motion it starts to spin\u2014
\nall ends are determined and from
\nthe beginning laid.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here, Peck raises a pointed question in a rather pointed way: if agency is crucial to the plan of salvation, why not let agency loose in the act of creation itself? Why should creation – any more than redemption – be a top-down, dictatorial affair? That kind of thing ruins the whole pie.<\/p>\n

Is creationism fundamentally incompatible with our Mormon account of the plan of salvation? Must we, to be good Mormons, actually be good Darwinists?<\/p>\n

We just might.<\/p>\n

Go read the whole poem<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steven Peck, in his moving and mischievous little poem “My Turn on Earth,” more than idly suggests that Creationism is Satanic. Only evolution, in all its messy contingency, is compatible with the gospel and the truth of agency. I laughed out loud and clapped my hands when I read it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":135,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corn"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/135"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20800"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20802,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20800\/revisions\/20802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}